World Chess Championship 2012 "Vishy" Anand versus Boris Gelfand

The World Chess Championship 2012 match between the current world chess champion GM Viswanathan Anand (India) and GM Boris Gelfand (Israel) took place on 10–31 May 2012 in Moscow/Russia. Prize fund was 2.55 million US Dollars.

The Challenger

The Ratings of the two Grandmasters on the FIDE List March 2012 of the Top 100 Players worldwide are:

- V.Anand is rated 2799 and placed Number 4
- B.Gelfand is rated 2727 and placed Number 22

____________________________________________________

Boris Gelfand will be the underdog and I wish him all the best in the match. I think he will have no chance against Anand
but maybe he is lucky in one way or the other.

However this might be his only chance in his life time to win the world title and nobody deserves it more than Boris to become world chess champion, as he is a grandmaster of long standing.

Boris Gelfand was born 24 June 1968 in Minsk, Belarussian SSR but he immigrated to Israel 1998 and became Israel's top ranking chess player.

I will publish the games here on this page in May...

All Games start at 15:00

Game 1: Friday 11 May

Anand 1/2 - Gelfand 1/2

Boris Gelfand used surprisingly the Gruenfeld Defense, the Exchange Variation (which is the main variation), and got an easy draw with the black pieces against World Champion Anand in the first game.Replay it below ...

Game 2: Saturday 12 May

Gelfand 1/2 - Anand 1/2

Anand defended with the Slav Defense (Semi-Slav Variation), and drew with Black against Boris Gelfand in just 25 moves.Replay it below ...

Anand 1/2 - Gelfand 1/2

Gelfand used again the Gruenfeld Defense as Black like in the first game and drew. Anand deviated from the first game and played a different setup starting with 3.f3. After trading off queens the game finally ended in a drawish rook endgame.Replay the game below ...

Game 4: Tuesday 15 May

Gelfand 1/2 - Anand 1/2

Anand defended with the Slav Defense (Semi-Slav Variation) like in the second game, and drew with Black again. The game was balanced at all times.Replay it below ...

Anand 1/2 - Gelfand 1/2

Gelfand 1/2 - Anand 1/2

Anand defended with the Slav Defense (Semi-Slav Variation) like in the second and forth game, and drew with Black again. The game was balanced at all times.Replay it below ...

Now we have seen all games ending in a draw.

Challenger Boris Abramovich Gelfand, Israel

Boris is delievering a hard fight. Can Anand beat him?

Results: Gelfand: 3 - Anand: 3

Game 7: Sunday 20 May

Gelfand 1 - Anand 0

Anand defended again with the Slav Defense (Semi-Slav Variation) like in the second, forth and sixth game, but this time Gelfand played the promising move 6.c5 and after the dubious pawn move 25...f6 Anand soon drifted into a losing position.

Anand (Black) just played 25...f6?

and after 26.BxNe4 dxB 27.Nd2 f5 28.Nc4 Nf6 29.Nc5 Boris (White) had the superior position because he has a firm grip in the center area, a penetrated rook and the black bishop at c8 is almost inactive (dead meat). See diagram below

Replay the game below ...

Results: Gelfand: 4 - Anand: 3

Game 8: Monday 21 May

Anand 1 - Gelfand 0

Gelfand miscalculated a tactical rich position as Black and lost.

Boris played here the losing move

1...Qf6?? (the correct move is 1...Nf6)

and sacrificed a knight, but did not get sufficient compensation (attacking chances) for it. In the end his attack evapourated into nothing. He overlooked the strong white move 17.Qf2! which traps and deactivates the black queen and Boris remains at a material disadvantage, so he resigned.Replay the game below ...

Results: Gelfand: 4 - Anand: 4

Game 9: Wednesday 23 May

Gelfand 1/2 - Anand 1/2

Anand defended with the Nimzo Indian this time and the position remained balanced and ended in a draw.Replay the game below ...

Results: Gelfand: 4,5 - Anand: 4,5

Game 10: Thursday 24 May

Anand 1/2 - Gelfand 1/2

Anand played 1.e4 again and Gelfand defended with the Sicilian defense like in game 5. But this time the Bb5 Variation was played.
Replay the game below ...

A draw again. This is a tough match indeed.

Results: Gelfand: 5 - Anand: 5

Game 11: Saturday 26 May

Gelfand 1/2 - Anand 1/2

Anand played the Nimzo Indian again and the position remained balanced and ended in a draw.Replay the game below ...

Results: Gelfand: 5.5 - Anand: 5.5

Game 12: Monday 28 May

Anand 1/2 - Gelfand 1/2

Anand played 1.e4 and Gelfand defended with the Sicilian defense again. (the Bb5 Variation)
Replay the game below ...

Anand retains the world title.

Anand won the second game in the four-game rapid tiebreak match. In the second game Anand (White) reached a drawish position in the endgame, but Gelfand made an error under acute time pressure and lost the game and the whole match. This is sad indeed, but Anand is known to have the fastest chess brain on earth and this gave him a small advantage in fast games.